


Reset

by freesiamoonbeam



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Soulmate Days AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-03
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:46:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21657763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/freesiamoonbeam/pseuds/freesiamoonbeam
Summary: Donna Noble's wedding day was the worst day of her life. And then she woke up yesterday.
Relationships: Tenth Doctor/Donna Noble
Comments: 21
Kudos: 135





	1. Donna's No-Good, Horrible, Very Bad Day. Again.

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Lost in Translation](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11815440) by [Ray_Writes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ray_Writes/pseuds/Ray_Writes). 



The alarm rang for a good minute before a pale hand shot out from underneath a blanket and turned it off. Donna Noble carelessly threw her phone back with a groan, unwilling to face the dreaded day-after-the-wedding. Bad enough that she would have to return the dress, she would also have to face her mother’s endless snipes and her father’s sympathetic eyes. Not to mention, her friends and relatives who would be dying to know exactly what the hell happened.

“I was sucked into a spaceship—" Nope.

“There was this man, well alien really—" Not that.

“Lance tried to feed me to a giant spider—” Even worse.

Donna groaned again. Part of her wanted to stay under the covers and never face the world again, but she was never the kind of person to just hide and wish the problems away. The dress needed to be returned, she had to get a new job, and she needed to visit her Gramps at the hospital, tell him what happened. Just because Donna didn’t get her wedding day right doesn’t mean the world stops turning, after all.

And there was the matter of the Doctor. Yesterday, she’d seen aliens and robots and the beginning of the world, all with a spaceship that’s bigger on the inside and the Doctor himself. Who had asked her to come along, and she declined because she was scared, of all things.

Granted, she really was scared. The fact that was an alien never truly sunk in until he was standing on the edge of the stairway, drowning the Racnoss and her children with such a cold look on his face, and he had never felt so far away from her then. Not that they were that close to begin with. Still, she managed to snap him out of that detached demeanor, and together they watched the Thames drain from the top of a water tank.

Donna abruptly sat up in bed. There was no need to dwell on all that; she had a lot to do today and laying about won’t help with that. She wanted to swing her legs to the side and get dressed for breakfast, but she didn’t move an inch. Despite her renewed determination to get things done, she found herself unable to leave the comfort of her own bedroom.

“Donna!”

Looks like the decision was made for her. Donna stood up and opened her door to the unsmiling face of Sylvia Noble.

“What?”

“What do you mean ‘what?’ It’s your wedding, that’s what! Why aren’t you up already? Having second thoughts, are we?” Sylvia said, hands on her hips. Her hair was already in curlers.

“Wedding?” Donna asked, blankly.

“Yes, the wedding! Don’t you back out now; we paid a lot for the church and the reception and that dress of yours. Now hurry up and grab a cuppa before you take a bath, and be quick about it!” Sylvia huffed, and stomped away. Donna watched her go, mouth agape.

What wedding? To Lance? But that was yester—oh no.

Donna just about ran downstairs straight to the kitchen. There was her father, calmly sipping a coffee and reading a newspaper. He looked up as she arrived.

“Donna! Ready for your big day…Donna? What’s wrong?” Geoffrey Noble immediately stood up, newspaper tossed aside. He was already dressed in a white dress shirt, and Donna could see that his hair had yet to be styled back. In other words, he looked exactly as he did yesterday when she went down for breakfast.

Donna pinched herself. Hard.

“Ow!” she yelped, rubbing the sore spot. Not a dream then.

“Donna?” her father repeated, coming closer to her. Donna shook her head.

“What’s the date?” she said instead, taking a step back. A flash of hurt crossed her father’s face, before he stopped.

“It’s your wedding day,” he answered. Donna shook her head again.

“No, I mean, the _date_ ,” she emphasized, crossing her arms.

“December 24, 2007, Donna, are you alright?” he asked, but he didn’t come closer. Donna was thankful for that, but the house still felt too stifled, too closed in. She needed to breathe. In, out.

“What are you all doing in here?” Sylvia’s voice echoed as she entered the kitchen, stopping just behind Donna. “We’re going to be late—”

“I think it’s my Soulmate Day,” Donna blurted out.

Everyone froze.

Sylvia’s eyes moved from Donna’s half-terrified face to Geoffrey’s shocked one.

“Well,” she said, breaking the silence, “it’s not Lance, isn’t it? You’ve brought him around already, practically hung off him, really,” Sylvia stopped and turned to face her daughter, “So who was it?”

“I don’t know!” Donna burst out. Soulmate Days are days that repeat seven times, for both halves of the soulmates, triggered when they touch each other for the first time. Lance didn’t believe in them, and Donna certainly didn’t. It’s part of why she liked him in the first place, and when they started dating the soulmates thing didn’t matter anymore. Most people who do have soulmates meet during their 20’s, a milestone Donna had passed years ago. Lance was of a similar mindset, and so she hadn’t wasted a second. Never mind the fact that deep down, she had always been excited for the day that resets and tell her that she just touched her soulmate for the first time.

Her thoughts were interrupted by her father going, “Now what?”

Donna shrugged in reply. Honestly, she didn’t want to go through the wedding again. One incident with the giant spider lady and Lance was enough, she didn’t want to repeat it again, much less seven times.

Sylvia sighed. “Well, we already paid for everything, can’t cancel now. Do you at least have an idea who he might be?”

“Not really, but I did dance with a lot of people during the reception,” Donna admitted.

“So the wedding went through, at least. No point in dallying, then. We’ll just have the plus ones sign their names as well. Donna, I assume from that gobsmacked expression that this is your first loop?” Sylvia asked, but barreled ahead with, “You now have seven resets to find your soulmate. Try not to make a scene—”

Donna’s voice rose dangerously. “How would I even—”

“Sylvia—” Geoffrey tried to cut in.

“—you always do, Donna, at least this time you have resets for it—”

“Fine!” Donna yelled. This apparently quieted them. She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Donna turned and headed directly for the bathroom, her eyes stinging with tears.

As she locked the bathroom door, she saw her reflection in the mirror: messy red hair and dulled eyes. No wonder her father asked what was wrong. She looked a fright.

How was she going to go through the entire charade knowing that Lance just used her like that? Knowing that beneath the Thames there was an egg or something, deep in the heart of Earth, waiting for her to trigger the hatching and feed them, waiting for Lance to deliver her like a cow destined for the slaughterhouse? What if the Doctor…

Donna’s head shot up. The Doctor! Of course! The particles, Huon or something, transported her from the church to the Doctor’s TARDIS! All she had to do was to get through the wedding, all the way to the aisle, and she’d be able to contact him, explain what’s happening. Do aliens even have Soulmate Days? Donna shook her head. Never mind that, he travels in time! He can probably stop the Days from happening and let her get on with forgetting all about Lance. She can even tell him early about the giant spider—Racnoss, that was it—and the egg thing, and her plan to destroy the Earth!

She was so excited about having figured out what to do that she didn’t realize her skin was glowing, until with a startled scream, Donna Noble disappeared from the bathroom.

* * *

A second later, rapid knocks sounded on the bathroom door.

“Donna, are you alright? Donna?” Geoffrey called out, worried by the half-scream he heard, and even more worried by the complete silence inside the bathroom.

“Donna?!”

* * *

She stopped screaming as soon as her feet registered solid ground. The first thing she felt was the cold, seeping in her thin shirt and sweatpants. Donna opened her eyes to the warm orange of the TARDIS, and grinned. She was going to greet him, possibly hug him, but belatedly realized that he may not recognize her, and switched tracks immediately.

“Hi, I’m Donna Noble, human, and I n—”

“You again!?”

“—your help, wait, _again_?”

The Doctor, still in his striped blue suit, stared at her. He was holding his sonic, and out of the corner of her eye she spied a violet blouse hanging on one of the railings.

Donna couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“There was a giant spider lady—”

“The Racnoss, yes.” The Doctor interrupted as he approached, sonic pointed and buzzing away at her. “You’re supposed to be at home, Donna Noble. I made sure the Huon particles were all gone, so…” he trailed off, looking at his sonic confusedly. “That’s not right. You should be empty of all Huon particles, so why…” he trailed off with some technobabble that Donna couldn’t hear underneath the crashing realization in her ears.

Soulmate. The Doctor was her soulmate.

‘Well, isn’t that wizard,’ she thought, just before her legs gave out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> May continue, may not. Depends on the whims of my schedule.  
> Inspired partly by the wonderful Ray_Writes, and by this story: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/452896/time-is-taller-than-space-is-wide


	2. The Time War is a Thing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor, and Soulmate Days.

The Time Lords had a fancy way of saying it: _linked heptatemporal iteration_. Rassilon, the founder of Gallifrey, had harnessed the power of these iterations to fine-tune his time travel experiments together with his partner and mate, Omega. On the final iteration, however, Omega made a mistake: he underestimated the power of a star and was killed in the resulting supernova. Rassilon continued their work, capturing the nucleus of the black hole, the result of the supernova, which then became the Eye of Harmony. This is what powered Gallifreyan society, and by extension, the TARDISes. Rassilon and Omega’s tale became one of the greatest stories in Gallifreyan society.

As the universe went on, continued exposure to the black hole’s proximity and the various ways that the Gallifreyans meddled with time eroded the ability of a Gallifreyan to experience the iterations. They could not attempt to bring these iterations back without disturbing the Eye of Harmony’s stability, and so the Time Lords gave up the iterations for good and simply taught later generations that these are the things of the past. After all, with a species as advanced as theirs, what need do they have of universally determined partners?

The Doctor agreed as much…until he escaped Gallifrey with his granddaughter.

As it turns out, there were societies that actually _valued_ these iterations. There was Hjelfkar, where the inhabitants had an entire festival lasting thirty planetary rotations and invited everyone in their solar system to mingle and find their partner. There was Nivelly and its sister planet Avelly, a strange planetary system where eligible Nivellians and Avellians travelled eons to a distant moon to determine their partners. Septocaster, where the iterations can repeat up to twenty-five times due to their relative proximity to a black hole. Akhaten, where the most highly sought-after objects are those infused with memories from a mate’s first iterations. And of course, Earth.

On Earth, they’re called Soulmate Day. There used to be other terms for it, but most of the humans the Doctor has traveled with has called them that. At first, the belief that Gallifreyans are above the iterations had been ingrained into his being, and thus he used to view paired mates as a sign of their inferiority to Time Lords. That is, until Susan, his own granddaughter, experienced the iterations for herself.

His only warning was of the TARDIS becoming suspiciously silent. And then Susan showed up, so happy and sad in equal measure, and told him of the seven iterations she spent wandering around in the Dalek-infested London, year 2164, with the man named David Campbell. In those iterations, she had fought Daleks, ran from Robomen, and fell in love in the ruins of London.

Knowing that the iterations were possible for a Gallifreyan ranked less than seeing his beloved granddaughter obviously torn between choosing to travel with him and living a life with a human she loved, and so he made the decision easy for her. It wasn’t until Ian and Barbara were holding him close did it sink in that his granddaughter, a Gallifreyan, had experienced the so-called Soulmate Day.

A Soulmate Day just happens, Barbara had said. Susan is very lucky; some never experience a reset at all. She and Ian Chesterton had their Soulmate Day during the first day of the school year, but after the resets were over, they agreed to keep it slow, as they were both dedicated to their jobs. Until, of course, Susan Foreman came in their classes and sent them on a grand adventure through the stars.

Companions came and went; some found their soulmates, some didn’t. As time went on, the Doctor did his best to try and figure out how a Soulmate Day works. It was evident that proximity to time-altering objects distorts the length of time, like black holes, but why can’t he, a Time Lord, sense what should be a great big ripple in the time-space continuum? Not to mention, the TARDIS can’t seem to sense it either. Sometimes, he just walks into a place and someone would go “You again!” or some variation of “Oh no, not again…” but nothing was ever picked up by his time senses.

He had briefly toyed with the idea of the iterations being psychological when Romana slammed a book in front of him.

“Linked heptatemporal iterations do not apply to Time Lords like us. We don’t need to waste too much time on that, not when we should be concerned with the Key of Time,” she had said, haughty and cold just like the rest of their species. The Doctor folded his long scarf and looped it idly around his hand.

“Aren’t you curious about it?”

Romana paused for barely a microsecond, but he still caught it, even as she said, “No.”

And that was that. Soulmate Days, especially with his companions, were eventually overshadowed by growing problems back in Gallifrey, and in the universe, where Daleks were becoming a depressingly normal part of his adventures. He barely had time to be concerned when the High Council would send him on various errands and impressing his human companions with the wonders of the universe. After all, he had time to figure it out later, once all of this was over.

* * *

After the Time War, the Doctor just felt numb.

Rassilon (damn him, and everything he ever did) somehow managed to weaponize Soulmate Days, not of Gallifreyans, but of other, admittedly lesser species. The resets gave them time to act, time to strike back at the Daleks, but at the cost of that pair’s life. Sometimes, the rip in time and space surrounding the reset was so big the Gallifreyans couldn’t fix it and still keep fighting in the war. The planet of the pair collapsed, along with the surrounding space; an ugly gash in the fabric of the universe.

The iterations weren’t psychological, he knows that now.

They were real, and from the way Rassilon wielded them, not something to be taken lightly. He’d seen fixed points in time and space get swallowed in the sinking void of a weaponized reset, days stretched into weeks and months and years just to glimpse the future and review the past. Lovers and families torn apart to predict just a few seconds.

His role in the War (Warrior, fighter, not a Doctor, not anymore) made him aware, if not entirely accurate, in sensing an impending iteration. Seven planetary rotations; that was the standard, though there were variations depending on the number of suns, proximity to time-altering objects, and even cultural factors. At first he avoided them, the feeling of an impending reset bring back unwanted memories. The TARDIS still can’t sense them, because what little power it siphons from the Eye of Harmony in her core also doesn’t allow her to sense a reset, but she knows if he senses one. She takes care not to send them to places where people actively gather to seek their soulmate.

And then there was Rose.

Rose Tyler was a breath of fresh air. She had a boyfriend—though they weren’t soulmates—and it was evident that she was the kind to search for a soulmate, not settling down until she found The One. The Doctor indulged her, for centuries may have passed but he never forgot that Susan’s—Arktyior’s—name translates to _Rose_. She was cheerful, but not obnoxiously optimistic; realistic but not pessimistic. And in the end, she’d eventually go, like Vicki and Ben and Polly and so many of his companions that found their soulmates through their adventures with him.

Except no, she was swept away into a parallel world, and the Doctor could not—would not—allow one more companion go without saying goodbye.

Burning up a sun just to say goodbye; he’d done worse things than that. Much worse.

“Wait,” Rose said, trembling where she stood, “I need to know. Do Time Lords have soulmates? Am I yours? Because I love you.”

They both knew very well that Soulmate Days are triggered by touch, and he held her hand the night they ran from the Autons. There was no reset, no sudden twinge in the fabric of time that signaled an impending iteration. Still, the Doctor struggled to reply. What could he have said anyway?

It didn’t matter, because the connection flickered and died. The Doctor stood there, unsure of what to do next. He had always thought Rose was angling for a suave, dashing kind of soulmate like Jack, but apparently—ah well.

Maybe he’ll visit another planet, one with much less regard for soulmates than Earth does. It’s Berresa’s cold season, and he did love a good Berresian palm juice.

But when he turned around to set the coordinates for Berresa, he found something else.

Specifically, someone else.

“What?”

“Who ‘re you?” the strange ginger woman in a wedding dress asked.

“Bu—” the Doctor blinked, unable to comprehend the sight before him.

“Where am I?” she demanded, her tone raising.

“What?”

“What the hell is this place?!”

_“What!?”_

In his shock, the little twinge across his time senses went completely unnoticed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I lied. There may or may not be a third chapter.


	3. The First Loop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things get a little...sideways.

“Donna? Donna!”

She came to at the Doctor’s increasingly frantic calls and a bright light flashing in front of her eyes. She quickly slapped the arm holding the light and sat up with an annoyed groan. The Doctor was crouching in front of her with a confused and dare she say it, _worried_ expression on his face.

“I’m up, all right? What the he—” Abruptly, the memories before she blacked out came rushing back, and she clamped her mouth shut. Donna stared at the Doctor, who kept glancing between her and his sonic, one hand braced on the edge of the jump seat—

—wait, when did she get on the jump seat? Last she checked, she was near the TARDIS doors and right across that violet blouse. Donna opened her mouth to ask, but the Doctor beat her to it.

“Well, there’s nothing wrong with you, temperature’s fine, blood pressure’s normal, sugar’s a bit low but—

“Oi!” Donna did not want to hear vitals now. Not when there are bigger things to discuss. “I passed out, didn’t I?” She didn’t wait for the Doctor’s nod before continuing with a groan, “How long was I out for?”

“Three minutes and sixteen seconds,” The Doctor rattled off. He waved the sonic at her again before she could protest.

“It can’t be the Huon particles, they’re active, yes, but harmless enough in a living receptacle, well at least until—”

“Alright, Martian boy, I get it, will you shut up for a moment?” Donna snapped. During his ramblings, he still hasn’t moved from his crouch right next to her legs. She _will not_ think about how close he is to her, never mind the fact that she was practically bloody naked! Instead, she shifted sideways to free herself from him and the jump seat; the Doctor not-so-subtly passing the sonic over her once again as she stood. Donna rolled her eyes.

“These particles, the ones Lance has been drugging me with, they’re back?” she asked, crossing her arms. The action pushed up her breasts, reminding her once again that she was in her nightclothes, which meant no bra. Donna hastily dropped her arms and placed them on her hips instead.

“Well, yes.” The Doctor stood up and glanced at the sonic before asking, “You haven’t been drinking any more coffee, haven’t you?”

Donna took a moment to absorb that. Of course, it reset as well. Given how the idea of this man— _alien!_ —is supposed to be her soulmate, the fact that these Huon particles are still inside her sounds like a better thing to focus on. Donna resisted the urge to pinch her nose like her mother sometimes does when she’s annoyed. Also, the TARDIS is incredibly cold. How is it that she’d never noticed before? Oh right, because she was wearing her wedding dress the first time. And because she was very distracted then.

“Donna?”

It took her another moment to realize that the Doctor was still expecting a reply.

“Oh! No, of course not. Didn’t even touch a cuppa after I got home. No, they’re back because—” Donna’s eyes widened, and she shut her mouth with an audible click as her teeth ground against each other.

The Doctor stared at her. She stared back. The Doctor prompted, “Because…?”

Well, there’s no point in hiding it anyway, not if they’re going to spend the next few Days together. Donna took a deep breath and subconsciously crossed her arms.

“It’s my Soulmate Day.”

There, she said it. Let his big brain figure it out. To her confusion, something dark crossed his face and he looked angry, so much that Donna nearly took a step back, before it melted away for something sad and a little blank, before turning into a look of puzzlement.

“Oh. OH!” The Doctor shouted, and she nearly jumped in surprise, but almost immediately he frowned.

“Really?”

“Ye-es, really.” Donna drawled in exasperation.

“B-but,” the Doctor sputtered, “I’m not your soulmate?”

The TARDIS stilled, its engines going abruptly silent. However, the two people inside the said room did not even notice.

Whatever Donna was going to say, it died in her throat. Of course. _Of course_ the Doctor was going to say that. Figures, more than thirty years waiting for her soulmate and he doesn’t even want her. Donna turned back from the Doctor, unwilling to let him see the tears burning in the back of her eyes. Frantically, she thought of something to say, to avoid the oppressive silence of the room.

“No, of course not, “she said loudly, “it’s probably someone I danced with at that bloody reception. You can drop me off at my house again,” Donna got that out before her voice cracked, which was blessing, really. She’d take anything at this point.

“Donna—”

“You Martians probably don’t have soulmates anyway. Just take me back to my house and I’ll be fine,” she said, cutting off whatever he was about to say.

There was a pause. “And the wedding?”

“I don’t think,” Donna hissed, still refusing to turn and face _him_ , “That it’s any of your business.”

She marched to the railing closest to the door, belatedly remembering that they could be _in space_ , but the Doctor called out to her with a sheepish tone.

“Erm, Donna, at least let me take the Huon particles out?” The Doctor offered, halting her in her steps. Oh, right.

Donna blinked, partly to remove the traces of tears in her eyes and partly to consider her next steps.

Yes, she wanted to go home—wanted to climb up to her bed and cry for a few moments just to get the heavy feeling out of her chest, wanted to call Nerys and her friends up for an impromptu drinking session— _but Nerys and her friends were at that bloody wedding_. And didn’t the Doctor say something about the Huon particles being dangerous?

Donna took a deep breath. And then another. Something began to rise within her, something that felt terribly like a scream. Something familiar that _burned_.

“I—”

“DONNA—!”

Donna Noble felt something rip, a searing pain in her stomach, and she knew no more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! This chapter went in so many different ways that it took months to put down a decent chapter. I'm so sorry for that, but hopefully I'll be able to update faster with the general plot pinned down.


	4. Four Beats To The End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The TARDIS, iterations, and Huon particles.

Huon particles are not rare; the Time Lords just wiped out the races that could utilize it.

Huon particles date back to the Dark Times, a time of chaos that predated the universe. These particles also exist as a kind of energy, and their tendency to attract each other across time and space made them a valuable tool in understanding the particulars of spacetime travel. Rassilon himself used these particles in the legendary experiments that formed the very core of Gallifreyan society: mastery over time. The very nature of time travel, however, guaranteed the efforts of other races to replicate this feat of temporal manipulation, and so the Time Lords went on a campaign to make sure these other races did not threaten Gallifreyan supremacy.

It was only called a campaign on Gallifrey. To other races involved, it was genocide.

One of these races were the Racnoss. Their bodies had evolved to tolerate trace amounts of Huon particles, enough to enable them to build an entire civilization based on the production and usage of these particles and their energy. The Racnoss, despite their size, can teleport great distances and can weave web-like structures that are strengthened and powered by Huon energy. The Time Lords sensed the threat of this race—learning and mastering Huon energy for temporal manipulation—and declared war. The resulting conflict was long and bloody, with the Time Lords emerging victorious and the Racnoss reduced to one Empress and a handful of survivors in a nucleus ship.

The Racnoss did not have linked heptatemporal iterations. Huon energy forced them to a single timeline, leading to a hive-like society with an Empress ruling above her own children. After the war, the Time Lords destroyed their planets and gathered the Huon particles for themselves. The part of the Eye of Harmony inside every TARDIS contains a concentration of these particles, which serves as stabilizer for the TARDIS in traversing through spacetime. Any race with the proper equipment can theoretically create Huon particles, but they run the risk of drawing the Time Lords’ attention and having their existence erased from the universe.

The Time War changed all of that.

For the most part, races that are advanced enough to create Huon particles and use them effectively are far too terrified of the horrors of the Time War and the fate of Gallifrey to ever attempt the creation of Huon particles. The only ones foolish enough to try often go mysteriously missing or encounter an unlucky situation where a Time Lord in a Type-40 TARDIS just happens to pass by and disagree with their plans.

But here’s the thing with Huon particles: they interfere with linked heptatemporal iterations.

This is what should have happened: Donna Noble drank coffee laced with Huon particles for several months. On her wedding day, Donna would disappear from the church in a blinding light. The Huon particles would have attracted Donna to the Empress of the Racnoss, if not the nucleus ship itself. The Empress would have drained the Huon energy from her body and used it to wake up her children, the survivors of the Racnoss genocide. The TARDIS, drained from having been used to burn up a sun to access another reality, would have never received a woman in a wedding dress.

Instead, this is what happened: Donna Noble drank coffee laced with Huon particles for several months. On her wedding day, Donna disappeared from the church in a blinding light. Donna reappeared on the TARDIS, despite her being drained and exhausted, because the Huon particles in Donna were attracted to the Huon particles inside the TARDIS. Later, the Doctor reversed the connection and called the TARDIS to them, using Donna’s Huon-filled body as a magnet for the time machine.

_Pause. Something rips, in the distance._

Huon particles, when absorbed by an organic, are generally harmless.

_Echoes of cracking. Pause, something strains. A rubber band being stretched._

Huon particles attract each other over not just great distances, but also across different timelines.

_Shaking, shuddering. Tearing off bits and pieces, stripping down to the very struts._

The TARDIS contained a part of the Eye of Harmony. The TARDIS sees the past, present, and the future, and everything in between. The TARDIS is powered by Huon energy.

_Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey._

The Doctor can sense impending iterations, an uncomfortable reminder of what he had wrought upon the universe during the Time War. The TARDIS has records of cultures and their approximate time of celebrating and triggering the iterations, but she cannot sense them. Not really. She relies on her Doctor for that.

Beat.

Human Soulmate Days are triggered by touch. 

Beat.

The TARDIS always has backups. Most of them, the Doctor installed. Others were…precautions, processes she made herself. Some were from the War. She never truly needed them, preferring instead to bind herself to a Time Lord so extraordinary that she stole him and ran away to the stars.

_Beat._

_Huon energy helps stabilize a TARDIS._

_Beat._

_Huon energy doesn’t help stabilize an organic._

_…_

_Huon particles plus the Eye of Harmony against the sheer intractability of a Soulmate Day._

_…_

_Loops upon loops upon loops upon loops upon loops upon loops upon loops upon loops upon loops upon loops upon loops upon loops upon loops upon loops upon loops upon loops upon loops upon loops upon Loops upon loops upon loops upon loops upon loops upon loops upon loops upon loops upon loops upon_

_..._

_Damage control, but it was too late. Human emotions were always too volatile._

_..._

_Bracing. All around, the universe was unraveling._

_..._

_Beat._

_Beat._

_Beat._

_Beat._

_Shattering._

**“DONNA—!”**

The Huon energy came bursting out of Donna, and the TARDIS cracked open.

* * *

The alarm rang.

Donna Noble woke up and screamed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I officially hate science. All information on this chapter was taken from the TARDIS Data Core, the DW Wiki.
> 
> On another note...this was supposed to be a comedy. It really got away from me.


End file.
